What do you do when you’re a prisoner of war?
Well, if you were French composer Olivier Messaien in a
concentration camp during World War II, you’d write
“Quartet for the End of Time,” a piece for piano,
clarinet, violin and cello that sounds as important and ethereal as
its title suggests.
“It’s a very monumental work,” clarinetist
Alexander Fiterstein said. “Every time we play it together,
it feels like we’ve taken this big journey.”
The Messaien piece, requested by the UCLA music department, is
the focus of the Young Concert Artist concert featuring Fiterstein
and the Claremont Trio tomorrow night at Schoenberg Hall. Together
they hope to attract new audiences to their music.
“I love playing at colleges, because our audiences do tend
to be younger,” said Julie Bruskin, cellist of the Claremont.
“I think in a lot of series we have audiences that are more
like my grandparents. It’s fun to be able to connect to
people that are more on the same page as I am.”
In fact, the programming of the concert reflects the
group’s concern for a younger audience, which may not be
familiar with classical music. The concert begins with two earlier,
more accessible pieces of French impressionism by Debussy and
Ravel.
“The sound of Messaien is different or surprising to
people,” Bruskin said. “Ravel and Debussy were both
people Messaien learned a lot from, so we thought that would be
interesting to see how that sound evolved.”
The Claremont Trio features Bruskin, her identical twin sister
Emily on the violin, and Donna Kwong on piano. They met at the
Julliard School in New York, and the group is named after Claremont
Avenue in New York where the twins lived.
After groups such as the Eroica Trio (named after a Beethoven
symphony) and the Emerson Quartet (named after Ralph Waldo), the
Claremont chose a different approach.
“We wanted a name that didn’t have connotations of
its own that would come to mean us,” Bruskin said.
The concert is organized by the YCA. Founded by Susan Wadsworth
in 1961, the YCA has given a boost to such artists as singer Dawn
Upshaw, pianist Murray Perahia, violinist Pinchas Zukerman, and
pianist Emanuel Ax.
“They’re some of the top musicians ever,”
Bruskin said. “It’s wonderful to think that we’re
connected to them in some way. I think one of the greatest things
YCA can do is present us to places that we would never end up on
our own.”
As young musicians (none of the performers are over
24-years-old), they believe they have an obligation to get younger
audiences into the music. Classical music represents a kind of
musical expression that the performers believe to be valuable.
Besides, it would be a shame to lose the fragmented beauty of
Messaien’s masterpiece that is not only a unique sound
experience, but also a part of music history.
“I think it’s our duty if we want to keep on
playing,” Fiterstein said. “We have to create new
audiences.”